We’re 10 short days away from making TechCrunch history, and we couldn’t be more excited. On 8 November, we kick off our first Startup Battlefield Latin America 2018 at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. We can’t wait to add up to 15 of the region’s exceptional early-stage startup founders to our Startup Battlefield alumni community.

The only thing more exciting than competing in the Battlefield is being there up-close and personal to watch and cheer as these startups go head-to-head for cash, serious bragging rights and potentially life-changing investor and media attention. We invite you to apply for a free spectator pass. Tickets are limited, and we’ll select people in the Latin American startup scene on a first-come-first-served basis.

In addition to witnessing an epic pitch competition, you’ll also enjoy presentations and panel discussions from our outstanding roster of speakers. More on that in a moment. First, here’s how Startup Battlefield works.

During three preliminary rounds, up to five startups per round will each have six minutes to pitch and present their demo before a panel of expert tech and VC judges. The judges have six minutes following each pitch to ask teams probing questions. Five of the competing startups will move on to the finals and pitch again to a new set of judges.

The judges confer and will ultimately name one startup to be Latin America’s first Startup Battlefield champion. The winning founders receive a $25,000 non-equity cash prize and a trip for two to the next Disrupt, where they can exhibit free of charge in the Startup Alley — and possibly qualify to participate in the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt.

Now, about those presentations we mentioned. We’ve invited a range of experts familiar with the region to host a series of discussions between Battlefield rounds. Here’s a small sample of what to expect:

Keynote:Rodrigo Schmidt (Instagram) will talk about the popular photo-sharing app’s rapid growth and development.